Interview Filter

SATYRICON (SATYR)

YOU’RE ABOUT TO BRING OUT YOUR NEW ALBUM “THE AGE OF NERO” ON NOVEMBER 14TH. AS THE LEGEND HAS IT, NERO WAS PLAYING THE FIDDLE AS ROME WAS BURNING. WHAT KIND OF PICTURES WERE YOU TRYING TO EVOKE WITH THAT ALBUM TITLE?
There is a, there are several layers of communication within the title in the way that as… The way I see it, we live in the age of Nero, you know. And Nero means ‘black’. And it is a very dark, or black age that we live in. And that I find through witnessing the amount and the intensity of warfare, being large-scale wars or many of these small ones that are (on) just about all continents. If you add to that a lot of things like, you know, like cultural and religious conflicts and just the magnitude of the natural desasters, you know, like some of the earthquakes that we’ve had and the hurricanes and especially the last Tsunami that we’ve had. And it’s very much this feeling that it is, we are living in the beginning of the end. I think, you know, there are people who contest that, but I can’t really see someone with perspective and some degree of historical insight and understanding of consequences that we are, you know, of what’s going on now saying that: “No, it’ll be fine in a few years!” I don’t think it will, I think it will only get worse. It could be that it would be a case of slow death and that it always has been, but now we are just starting to see the signs much more clearly. Or it could be, as things unfold, that it will lead into a real conflict which would be, for example, world war three. Now this is not just some mythical, like, metal thing. It is the world that we live in. And something drastic might happen in five, ten, fifteen, fifty, eighty years. I don’t know. But it isn’t that long ago since we had the second world war, and shortly before that we had the first world war. Our capacity and our will to destroy is in a whole different level now. And there are mechanisms trying to avoid that happening, because we all know where it will take us. But there are also institutions that are willing to walk that path and take the chance. And I think we’re doing it every day in a way, you know. But I don’t do social commentary, that’s not Satyricon’s role. There are more (than) enough platforms for doing social commentary and criticism and things like that. We are not criticizing anything, you know. We’re not saying: “Oh, wake up, see what’s going on!” Absolutely no! What we’re doing is that, as any other artist, what’s going on inside of you is being reflected in your art. But what’s going on inside of you is also a result of what you see on the outside. I get a very dark, sinister feeling from living in this age. It’s not like I walk around being like a miserable, depressed guy, but consuming it puts me in a dark state of mind when I start absorbing all these things. And I think it inspired my approach, it helped bring out the dark emotions and substance which you will find in this album. And, you know, as you said it yourself, the Roman empire was burning at emperor Nero’s watch. And guess what, something else is burning in our watch as well. And it’s, this is an overwhelming feeling to me and it’s, as it inspired some of the emotions on the record, it also inspired the album title. A good album title should reflect the lyrical, musical, and content and the attitude behind what you’ve just done.
YEAH, YOU REALLY DID CAPTURE THE ATMOSPHERE OF THAT AND TRANSPORTED IT INTO THE MUSIC. BUT WHERE EXACTLY DO YOU DRAW YOUR INSPIRATION FROM? IS IT FROM WALKING THROUGH THE WOODS, OR SITTING AT HOME REFLECTING ABOUT THE STATE OF THE WORLD WITH A GLASS OF WINE? THAT’S ALMOST PHILOSOPHICAL…
I think certain things that comes with a territory. And there is certain things that we are just born with, you know, inherited through, I mean, you know, genetics or whatever. But I believe that, you know, each individual is a unique one, as much as we might have, you know, things brought down from generation to generation in our families. Everyone has their own sort of fine-tuned little mechanism who makes them who they are. Then what you can add to that is what you experience through your life and how you’ve chosen to let that affect you or not affect you, you’re whatever. And hopefully, or I’d like to think that, you know, like any good piece of art, whether it’s a good painting or a book or, like in our case, making albums, what’s going on reflects a lot of the inside of its creator. And there is a lot of Satyr and Frost in Satyricon, you know. There are also parts of us that doesn’t really relate to our music, that isn’t to be shown. But there is more of us in our music than there isn’t, you know what I mean.
THE MUSIC CARRIES A VERY COLD ATMOSPHERE, AS FOR EXAMPLE IN THE SONG “MY SKIN IS COLD”, AND YOU GET THAT FEELING FROM A LOT OF THE SONGS – THAT THE COLD JUST SEEMS TO CREEP UP TO YOU. YOU ONCE SAID THAT SATYRICON HAS A LOT TO DO WITH PORTRAYING YOUR DARKEST EMOTIONS. IS THERE ANY LINE ON THE ALBUM THAT SUMS THAT UP PERFECTLY FOR YOU?
“Commando” is kind of like the war-song, the fight-song on the album. And going also from one of the verses into the bridge of the song there is a line where I sing “as the world kneels”. And I remember as I performed it, it kind of sent a little bit of shivers down my spine. And it’s the same every time I listen to it, it’s kind of like that moment is being recreated over and over again. That’s the way it is sometimes that you have certain things that will only, you know, happen to you once while at other times it constantly comes back to you. And with that line it does. Yeah.
DOES THAT HAPPEN A LOT – THAT YOU GET CARRIED AWAY BY YOUR OWN CREATION OF MUSIC WHEN YOU LISTEN TO IT?
Absolutely! And that’s the beauty of it, that you can still… you know, when you’re in a band a lot of it is just… (sighs) You know, you have these moments – everyone has those moments – where you start thinking like, you know: “Why the hell… What brought us here?” Like, you know, it’s kind of like that professional football player that started of kicking the ball around in a park. And he might have the situation, like where he is playing for this huge club, and he’s in like this contractual dispute, or like the media is after him or something like that. He might sit down and think like: “Why? You know, I just wanted to kick a ball around, like, how did I end here in this situation?”, you know. And we’ve been in situations where I remember thinking like you know: “What the hell?! I just wanted to make music and be in a band and like… I don’t want to do this!” (laughs) And you have moments like that. But you also have those beautiful moments that redefine and makes you remember like: “Yes! This is worth all the pain!” You know, cause this is so great. And then when making an album is, you know, it’s very much a spiritual sort of (a) big sophisticated project, but then it’s also a lot of technical work and, you know, test of character and test of patience and stamina, and keeping your eye on the target and making sure that, you know, I have, you know, had moments where, you know, like an engineer saying like: “Well, I don’t know what the problem is, Satyr, that thing sounds good!” And I said: “Well, I’m not really buying it myself. So even though there is nothing sort of technically wrong with what I just did, I’m not buying it! And I can’t expect, I can’t really see anyone else buying it, if I’m not buying it myself! So I’m gonna do it again!” You know, so that’s how I approach things. But… So doing an album is like a rollercoaster ride at different phases. And once you finished it you spent all your time, at least I do, focussing on the things that possibly could have been done in a different way. It’s impossible to enjoy.
AN ALBUM IS NEVER FINISHED!
Exactly! And then I start thinking to myself, like: “Ouhhh… You know, why can’t I just like enjoy my music?” I’m making this music and then I all sit and look at it, like: “Oh, you know, the ride cymbal should have been a little bit louder during this part or…!”, you know, things like that. But then I know within myself that I just have to let it go and at one point I will be able to just listen to it and enjoy it. And I had, like the first few weeks in “The Age Of Nero” was all about spending all my energy on these extremely, like tiny little details. And then finally now I’m over it and I just get to enjoy the album, as I intended to do make something that was gonna be to our own pleasure and liking. And that’s a great feeling that I already now have forgotten about those things. And I actually honestly have some now where it’s kind of like, you know: note to self – like, don’t worry about it, it will be fine! Yeah!
SATYRICON’S MUSIC HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT THE MAIN RIFF THAT CARRIES THE SONG – THE ONE CATCHY RIFF THAT GRABS YOU AND DOESN’T LET YOU GO ANYMORE. IF YOU GET AN IDEA FOR A HOOK IN YOUR HEAD – DO YOU KNOW RIGHT AWAY THAT THIS COULD BE THE PERFECT HOOK TO MAKE UP A GREAT SONG OR DO YOU JUMBLE IDEAS AROUND?
Some things just stand out as clearly being that main theme that can carry a whole thing on its shoulders, while as other times you have, you know, like… You know, you work on something and then you think to yourself like: “This ia a bridge, just a small little piece that’s gonna be a transition going out of this into the next!” And then you go a lot back and forth and then you’re kind of like: “Well, this kind of doesn’t work!”, and then all of a sudden you’re like: “Wow! You know, what if we change the starters of this part as being a sort of the transitional piece and actually trying to do the main piece into a transitional piece and start working on the transitional piece and see where we can take that?” And then all of a sudden – boom! – then the minor part becomes the major part in the song and the other way around. So, you know, that can be like a sort of a project of contemplation and, you know, like reconsidering and trying to find solutions to… while at other times I have this riff or whatever and really, you know, you clearly know that this is the foundation of your song.
THE LAST ALBUM “NOW, DIABOLICAL!” WAS VERY ROCKY AND VERY DRIVING. YOU DEFINITELY KEPT THAT DRIVING FEEL IN THE SONGS, BUT “THE AGE OF NERO” SOUNDS A BIT MORE DOOMY TO ME, EVEN SLOWER IN PARTS. WAS THAT INTENTIONAL, THAT YOU WANTED TO SHOW THE REST OF THE BLACK METAL WORLD THAT YOU DON’T HAVE TO GO 200 MILES AN HOUR, THAT YOU DON’T HAVE TO PUT A 1000 RIFFS IN THERE? WAS THAT IN THE BACK OF YOUR MIND – TO SHOW THEM WHO’S THE KING?
I think my first and foremost target was to make this album an album not just like a bunch of songs. And it’s nothing like our previous albums with a bunch of songs… I’m really proud of all of them but what I’m getting to is that it was very much a journey. So it didn’t relate to-, I mean, if you look at, for example, you know, with reference to pace, you know, “Commando” is at times quite, you know, hectic, especially in the beginning and the end. So is “Black Crow On A Tombstone”, so is a big part of “Die By My Hand” while as the final track “Den Sieste” you know, is very, very heavy and filled with emotions of doom. And, you know, Frost and I talked about how… “Last Man Standing” is a song that – despite its sludge-like groove – it’s still not really a song that we consider to be like a heavy song. We consider it to be a really big song. I said that to Frost once that we played it. And it’s got this, you know (imitates the beat): “Doonk-u-puck-a!” A really like groovy, heavy, you know, swamp-like feel to it when you just sort of listen back. And then I sit there playing at rehearsal, and I said, I said as we finished the song, I said to Frost: “You know what, I kind of like with this track, you know – as heavy as it is – I don’t really think upon it as a heavy song. I think upon it as a really big song!” And he said: “Oh, yeah! It’s huge! I never thought about it as heavy! I just thought about it as epic.” And I went: “Really?” And he said: “Oh yeah! Absolutely! Never considered it any other way!” And I said: “Interesting!” And, so that just goes to show that whether you play fast or mid-pace or slow, we seem to be doing all of it on “The Age Of Nero”. It isn’t really about, you know – whatever your song and the atmosphere you are trying to convey – whatever they need, you know, that’s what you need to supply them with. And some bands have just sort of, they work with some pre-sets, you know, just in the way that you have a keyboard, you have pre-set sounds and some keyboarders are just sort of happy to run through the pre-programmed sounds made by Yamaha or whoever made that keyboard. And I said this is cool, while as other keyboard players have more like: “Yeah, well, this cool. I can use that or go to another one while this one needs to be changed or improved or customized to fit the equasion. Like, you know, make sure that it’s right in context. And Satyricon is a band, like, we don’t have like: We play fast! Or: We play heavy! It’s just whatever works for the song, whatever works to give the album good dynamics and diversity as we run through it.
REGARDING FROST’S DRUMMING: HE’S ALMOST LIKE A DRUM LEGEND – BY ACCENTUATING HIS DRUMMING THE WAY HE DOES, I FEEL IT MAKES THE MUSIC EVEN MORE BRUTAL. BUT WHEN YOU HAVE A DRUM ANIMAL LIKE HIM, IS HE HAPPY WITH ALL THE SLOW, SLUDGY, DOOMY PARTS OR IS HE ONLY HAPPY WHEN UNLEASHED?
I think he’s only happy when he’s performing well. That’s pretty much where he is. Fortunately, according to himself it is only that he really, really understands his role in the music. He has done a lot of things in the past where I think he’s sort of trusted my take on it saying that: “I hear you’re playing all those tom rolls, but I’m telling you – once I add that extra guitar that I have plans for that you’re not hearing now, and I’ll be singing on top of this part as well – what you’re doing here is not gonna fill any gap in the music. It’s gonna cloud something. You’re gonna get in the way of something exciting. You’re gonna make something that is exciting less exciting with what you’re doing right now!” And we’ve had things like that where he’s been kind of like: “Oh, well…!”, and then just doing what I told him to do. But in the last couple of years, and especially working with this album, he’s been like: “Well, I had an idea for this part but I’ll show it to you. But I’m not quite sure because I do remember you saying something about adding a bassline here that was gonna be quite melodic, or that you had some plans to add more vocals in this part!” So that just shows to prove that now he’s thinking more “song”. He’s not just basically doing as he’s being asked. You know, he’s actually finding a great deal of interest himself in wanting to, you know, to supply to the song with what it needs to be everything that it can be. And that’s also something that has changed. Typical for a drummer they’ll get some, you know, they will get some… They will talk to their cymbal dealer, and they’ll be: “You should try this crash cymbal – it’s fantastic! It’s this and that!” And they’re: “Oh, great!” And they put it on the drumkit. And I’m not gonna know about it, and they’ll play it. And I hear it in the sound and I’m like: “What the hell?!” And then I’ll ask: “Is there a new cymbal somewhere?”, “Yeah!”, and it’s like: “That one, right?”, because you can’t really tell by the way it looks, because he’s got so many and he all abuses them so roughly that even if they’re new they look old within two hours. (chuckles) And so sitting down like: “I don’t like it, I think it sounds crap!” And he’s like: “What do you mean ‘crap’? This is a, you know, so and so expensive cymbal. And it’s, you know, it’s got this great reputation!” I’m like: “Yeah, but obviously those who gave it that great reputation, they never tried it in this song. Because it certainly has all the things that we don’t want and nothing of what we need!” And he said: “What do you mean?”. I said: “Well, the cymbal is kind of like a, it places itself on top of the guitars, and I want it to cut though the guitars aggressively! I don’t want it to become like a church bell floating on top of my guitars. It sounds dull, and I want it to sound aggressive!” And these things were things that he simply wasn’t able to relate to in the past. But now he’s much more interested in finding the gear to get the most out of the song. So he has applied a much more musical and creative approach to his drumming, and he is really enjoying that himself. And I think it has, like he said himself, opened up a whole new world to him. So, sure, he’s got a little bit of vanity in him. He likes to show off things that are crowd-pleaser qualities, but I think what he first and foremost enjoys is to help be a part of creating good music. And there are other arenas and opportunities for him to just showcase crowd-pleaser skills.
YOU JUST MADE IT VERY CLEAR THAT YOU HAVE A VERY, VERY CLEAR VISION OF THE SATYRICON SOUND AND HOW THE SONG IS GONNA BE LIKE. HOW DO YOU REACT WHEN SOMEONE TRIES TO FUCK WITH YOUR VISION? IS THERE ANYBODY WHO DARES TO STAND UP TO YOU SAYING: “I THINK, THIS PART SHOULD SOUND MORE LIKE THAT?”
Yeah, they absolutely do! I mean, Frost is opinionated and passionate about his opinions, and he’s not afraid to speak his mind in that sense. He knows that I have the final word, and I don’t think… I don’t think, if someone has been assigned to be the song-writer, I haven’t just taken upon myself to be the song-writer. It’s also a mission that Frost has given to me. It’s a mission that he has given to me through being – well, he should be saying it himself, not I should be saying – he keeps on always telling journalists about how highly he thinks of my song-writing. He’s a drummer himself, not a song-writer. So basically he’s saying: “I play drums, I’m not a song-writer. I love your song-writing! You do the song-writing!” And I think in a band you have some strange situations there, you have some constellations. Without naming names, I’ve talked to – on many occasions, but especially in one occasion – I thought it was so strange that this absolutely awesome act that had a song that I thought was so focused and so powerful. And it had like an ending-piece that was like a tail-end of a song that was like a fifth wheel on the wagon. It didn’t make sense at all. It was kind of like: “Why didn’t the song stop here?” It already lasted long enough for, you know, it had good duration and everything made sense, and this part came around. And now I’m like: “What the hell happened?”, you know. And it kind of like took the air out of the balloon. And I talked to the song-writer in the band. He’s like: “Well, tell me something I don’t know!” And I’m like: “Yeah, well..:”. And then he goes: “Well, this other prominent member of this band wanted to add this to the song!” And he wasn’t really the song-writer of the band but he just had this idea. And no one really thought it was a particular idea, but this guy was never the lesser prominent member of this band, so it would have been a conflict within the band if he was turned down. It was simply not… He wanted it in there, so it had to be there. So the song-writer in the band and the rest of the band didn’t enjoy it, but it was a sort of a social compromise. So I said: “So in other words you’ve compromised what in other ways could have been not just a good song, but an absolutely fantastic song just to make sure that the atmosphere within the band is good!?”. And he said: “Pretty much, yeah!” And I thought to myself: God, I’m so happy that we don’t have it like that in Satyricon! Because it would have been so tragic if we would have to do things like that. But it’s really rare that Frost and I have these: “I absolutely don’t like this!”. But I will always take the chance to tease a little bit when it comes to Frost and these things, because it is very rare that we have conflicts like that. But what I can say is, one of the few conflicts we had is that he was very unhappy with the song “Mother North”. And I strongly insisted that this song is great just the way it is, not doing anything. I mean, we did some crap recording where it was extremely fast, like ridiculously fast. And like, I said to him: “Playing this song ridiculously fast takes all the atmosphere and the size out of it!” And he was just unhappy with the way it unfolded, and he didn’t like it. And I said: “Trust me! This is a great song!” And I think in hindsight (laughs) he changed his mind, and I guess I proved my point as it’s, the song became sort of a national anthem of a whole genre. But Frost has a good ability to judge, and it’s just getting better and better. But sometimes I have to go in and use my veto. But it’s rare. And also, it’s being good that I had Snorre from Thorns as a brainstorming partner of mine. And he is in the same way that he can, he truly understands the nature of Satyricon. And he’s a really good song-writer. And that’s why I wanted him as a brainstorming partner to compliment me. And, you know, he’s always very frank and open about his opinions, for good and for bad. And I, yeah, I enjoy that. It’s good, but I’m very determined if I feel strongly about something. I don’t…if I know within my heart that this is right I don’t… There’s nothing that people can say to sort of talk me into something else. Not if I feel strongly about it.
YOU JUST BROUGHT UP YOUR FRIEND SNORRE RUCH WITH WHOM YOU BRAINSTORMED AND CO-WROTE THE ALBUM. YOU WROTE THE ALBUM IN A LITTLE CABIN IN THE NORWEGIAN WOODS. JUST SO WE GET A FEEL FOR THE ATMOSPHERE: WHAT WERE YOU SEEING WHEN YOU WALKED OUT THE DOOR? WHAT WERE YOUR SURROUNDINGS LIKE?
Well, the surroundings in themselves aren’t-, Right there where the cabin is isn’t anything really special about it. It’s a mountain village three hours north of Oslo, a nice one. It’s got pretty much anything that you’re looking for if you want to go, you know, like there is alpine skiing or cross-country skiing, walking, dog-sledding. There is even, somewhere up there is, someone made a golf course. It’s all, it’s kind of like this, it’s a huge mountain, enormous area. And there is tons of cabins there and everything. This cabin is a nice one which is owned by a friend of mine, which is on the top of the mountain. So it’s sort of a a little bit more withdrawn from everyone else. I actually think that one of the few other sort of cabins like that in the area is actually Michael Schumacher’s cabin. I remember passing it thinking-, it was something hidden behind trees and, you know, I couldn’t quite see what was there. It’s like: “God!” And I asked him: “Whose cabin is that?”, “This is Michael Schumacher’s cabin!” That was interesting! (laughs) But it’s quiet, it’s away from everything. In the wintertime it’s hectic. I spend most of the time there, spring, summer and autumn. I was there a little bit in the winter as well, but a little bit less because it was a little bit more hectic around there. But I enjoy the silence that is there. The actual cabin is awesome. It’s got this, you know, like really massive wood, you know, like that. And it’s built like in an old traditional Norwegian style. It actually has great acoustics, too. It sounds great inside. We set up lots of mobile recording equipment in there and it sounded really good. Actually, some of the little bits and pieces I remember recording there that I liked the way they sounded so much that I didn’t re-record it, just put it on the album. Cause it sounded raw, but cool. And I didn’t-, I liked some of the low-fi stuff on it because it was low-fi, but low-fi in a good way. So yeah, but Snorre’s role pretty much was that of a… He’s really great with, you know, technical stuff – which I’m not. And for me to have someone around that can sit and work that part of it makes me able to concentrate on what I should really be concentrating on. Plus, he is a great song-writer and a good guitarplayer. And, you know, I’d sit there and do the writing but I get the input from him in trouble spots or sort of – not necessarily trouble spots – but where to go next with the song, for example, you know. So it was very fruitful for me to have someone to feed off in a situation like that. So many of the trips I made just by myself, but he was also there a lot. And I think he enjoyed it a lot, too. And I’d been doing similar stuff for his band Thorns for a long time. And I enjoyed working with him, and I think the other way around, too. Whenever we had breaks I would, you know, sit and play around some Satyricon stuff, and he would get a little bit involved. And it worked quite well. So for this album I said: I want to do tons of mountain trips, because whenever I have done things like that in the past it’s been very, it’s given me like a whole deeper level of focus. And I think it’s come out really good in the music. And I said: “I want you to come along for a few of these trips!” And he said: “Yeah, that’s cool!”
I’VE READ A QUOTE FROM YOU SAYING THAT SATYRICON FANS ARE DIFFERENT FROM OTHER BLACK METAL FANS. IN WHAT WAY? WHAT MAKES THEM SPECIAL?
I think the majority of Satyricon fans appreciate and don’t really care whether-, about certain labeling music whatever you want to call it. You know, like black metal or death metal or thrash metal. They simply relate to Satyricon’s music as Satyricon. And they judge it, you know, by its musical worth, and they consider the music on solely a musical basis. That is the vast majority of them anyway. They do that. And that’s being like an accomplishment of the band, that we’ve been able to finally grow into a position where people don’t care so much about labeling. They care about Satyricon’s music. Also a lot of band’s fans love a certain band because they know exactly what to expect, and they want things to be the same as they’ve always been. With Satyricon it’s more a situation where I find that most fans seem to really get excited by the fact that they know that whatever they’re gonna hear is gonna be Satyricon as they recognize through our sort of signature and trademarks that is in my compositional style and my voice and my guitarplaying, and definitely in Frost’s distinct style as a drummer. Other than that they don’t really know what they’re gonna get. And that excites them. That’s something they don’t really hold against us, that’s something that they see as an asset with the band. I think our fans are more… Well, let’s put it this way: that there might be another band in the world of extreme metal music that they also love, and they go to their shows, but with this band “X” they don’t really behave in the way that they do at a Satyricon show because there is something about our performances and the energy that we unleash upon them that triggers something inside of them that will only come out on a Satyricon show. Another thing which is quite different is that a lot of bands within, you know, like the heavier side of metal appeal to a lot of fans of gothic music and let’s say, you know, your typical heavy metal stuff. While as Satyricon’s fans are either pretty much fans of the most extreme metal and fans of rock music. That’s a big difference. And we don’t cater so much to that what I like to call “latex crowd”. I don’t really hold that against them, but it isn’t our scene, it never will be, and it’s something that we have a really hard time relating to. It’s not like, you know… For me it’s like connecting with a jazz audience. I don’t understand their thing, and I don’t like disrespect – I just don’t get it. And I feel it has like nothing to do with us. So I understand that we don’t have a lot of fans from that scene. And just in the same way that I relate to fans of good hardrock music, I mean, I like that kind of music myself, and it’s reflected in Satyricon’s music. And because of our visual portrayal and imagery isn’t stereotype and clichee, it’s something that they easier can relate to as well, because they might like the music of other bands in the most heavy parts of metal, but they feel alienated by an imagery that doesn’t seem scary to them, it seems childish to them. They find it to be silly, not like provocative or dark or scary. They just sort of laugh at it. And with Satyricon, I think a lot of them can be able to judge it purely on its musical quality, because there is nothing… There is no, like, cookie monster imagery that they feel turned off by.
DO YOU SEE YOURSELF AS AN INNOVATOR, NOT ONLY FOR THE EXTREME METAL SCENE, BUT FOR THE METAL SCENE IN GENERAL?
I think we have been labeled that by a lot of people and people from, you know, hardcore underground fans that we meet around the world when we travel and talk to them after a show, or before a show, whatever, or by media or by big players in some of the most famous metal bands in the world. And that’s an honour and a privilege, but it’s also a responsibility in a way. But first and foremost our job is to make sure that Satyricon can excel and be everything that we have the potential to be.
WHAT ARE YOUR TOURING PLANS AFTER “THE AGE OF NERO” COMES OUT?
Well, I mean, pretty much as it comes out we have little bit of a thing going here in November and December, a headline-tour running from-, starting off in Norway, running from November 12th up until christmas. And it’s taking us all over the continent pretty much, but a lot of what we’re doing is gonna be happening here in Germany with nine shows. Right where I’m sitting here now I don’t remember all nine of them, but just log on to the Satyricon website and the dates are all there. And I encourage people to come and check us out. They’ll be… I think I’ll give them a sort of money back guarantee. (laughs)